Defoliation Q

No, in the end, there is only the underlying mechanism that performs gas exchange and photosynthesis, opinions or personal touch are irrelevant as it doesn't change the mechanics of it, gas exchange happens prior to photosynthesis, taking off top two biggest leaves doing the most work on a plant that only has 4 leaves of any good size, is not of a benefit in anyway shape or form, lateral branching is encouraged by removing the apex and the hormone auxin with it, taking off fan leaves because its what you wanna do is one thing, the very purpose of fan leaves are to collect energy, taking off 50% of a plants photosynthetic mass does not "put more energy into lateral growth", it simply takes away almost 50% of the plants ability to perform gas exchange, thus reducing its DLI capacity, Primary growth metric is set by the plants ability to capture carbon from the air, it might put more growth into the lateral growth, after it recovers from the loss. But loss is still a loss.